Nargis Dutt (Hindi: नर्गिस, Urdu: نرگس; 1 June 1929 – 3 May 1981),
born Fatima Rashid but known by her screen name,
Nargis,[1] was
an Indian
film actress. She is widely regarded as one of the greatest
actresses in the history of Hindi cinema. She made her screen debut as a
child in Talash-E-Haq in 1935, but her acting carer began
in 1942 with Tamanna. During a career that spanned from
the 1940s to the 60s, Nargis appeared in numerous commercially
successful as well as critically appreciated films, many of which
featured her alongside actor and filmmaker Raj Kapoor. One of her best-known roles was
that of Radha in the Academy Award-nominated Mother India
(1957), a performance that won her Best Actress trophies at the Filmfare Awards
and the Karlovy Vary
International Film Festival. In 1958, Nargis married her
Mother India co-star, actor Sunil Dutt, and left the film industry. She
would appear infrequently in films during the 60s. Some of her
films of this period include the drama Raat Aur Din (1967), for which she
got the inaugural National Film
Award for Best Actress.

Along with her husband, Nargis formed the Ajanta Arts
Cultural Troupe, which roped in several leading actors and
singers of the time and held stage shows at border areas.[2]
In early 1970s, she became the first patron of Spastics Society of
India,[3] and her
subsequent work with the organisation brought her recognition as a
social worker, and later a Rajya Sabha nomination
in 1980.[4]

Nargis died in 1981 of pancreatic cancer, a few days before
her son Sanjay Dutt
made his film debut in Bollywood. In 1982, the Nargis Dutt
Memorial Cancer Foundation was established in her memory.[5] The
award for best feature film on national integration in the annual
National Film Awards ceremony is called the
Nargis Dutt Award in her honour.[6]

Contents

Early
life and background

Nargis was born into the tawaif tradition[7]
of Calcutta. Her mother, the Allahabad-based Hindustani classical music
singer and courtesan Jaddanbai[7],
did not teach her singing, to prevent her from falling into the
tawaif tradition. Instead, she introduced her into the movie
culture unfolding in India at the time. Her father was a wealthy
doctor from Rawalpindi.[8] Her
only brother, Anwar Hussain, also became a film actor.

Career

Fatima was recruited to the cinema at an early age. She made her
first film appearance in the 1935 Talashe Haq when she was six years
old, credited as "Baby Nargis". Nargis, her stage name, means
"Narcissus", the flower. She was subsequently credited as
Nargis in all of her films.

Along with her husband, Nargis formed the Ajanta Arts
Cultural Troupe, which roped in several leading actors and
singers of the time, and performed at remote frontiers to entertain
the Indian soldiers; it was the
first troupe to perform at Dhaka, after the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
and the formation of Bangladesh.[2]
Later, Nargis worked for the cause of spastic children. She became the first patron
of The Spastics Society of
India. Her charitable work for the organisation got her
recognition as a social worker.[2]

Death

Years later, Nargis was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and
underwent treatment for the disease at Memorial
Sloan–Kettering Cancer Center in New York.[9]
Upon her return to India, her condition deteriorated, and she was
admitted to Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai. She sank into a coma
on 2 May 1981 and died on 3 May 1981.[9]
Her absence at the premiere of her son's debut film Rocky
on 7 May 1981, where one seat was kept vacant for her, was a
nationally famous event.[9]

Nargis Dutt was the recipient of the "Urvashy Award", the
highest honour that can be conferred on a movie actress in
India.[4]

She was not just the first actress to win the "Karlovy Wary
Award", and also nominated to the Rajya Sabha (Upper house of Indian Parliament) (1980-81),[1][10] but
fell ill and died during her tenure.[11]

She had been conferred with a National Award for cinematography
for contribution to Indian Cinema.[12]

On 8 January 2001, Amitabh Bachchan and Nargis Dutt were
honoured with the "Best Artists of the Millennium" award by Hero Honda and file
magazine "Stardust".[13]